Реферат: The problems of oral translation

--PAGE_BREAK--These are all, however, modifications of the two main types of translation. The line of demarcation between written and oral translation is drawn not only because of their forms but also because of the sets of conditions in which the process takes place. The first is continuous, the other momentary. In written translation the original can be read and re-read as many times as the translator may need or like. The same goes for the final product. The translator can re-read his translation, compare it to the original, make the necessary corrections or start his work all over again. He can come back to the divceding part of the original or get the information he needs from the subsequent messages. These are most favourable conditions and here we can expect the best performance and the highest level of equivalence. That is why in theoretical discussions we have usually examples from written translations where the translating process can be observed in all its aspects.
The conditions of oral translation impose a number of important restrictions on the translator's performance. Here the interdivter receives a fragment of the original only once and for a short period of time. His translation is also a one-time act with no possibility of any return to the original or any subsequent corrections. This creates additional problems and the users have sometimes to be content with a lower level of equivalence.
There are two main kinds of oral translation — consecutive and simultaneous. Interdivting requirements – depending on the type of interdivting one is engaged in – can range from simple, general conversation, to highly technical exposes and discussions. In consecutive translation the translating starts after the original speech or some part of it has been completed. Here the interdivter's strategy and the final results depend, to a great extent, on the length of the segment to be translated. If the segment is just a sentence or two the interdivter closely follows the original speech. As often as not, however, the interdivter is expected to translate a long speech which has lasted for scores of minutes or even longer. In this case he has to remember a great number of messages and keep them in mind until he begins his translation. To make this possible the interdivter has to take notes of the original messages, various systems of notation having been suggested for the purpose. The study of, and practice in, such notation is the integral part of the interdivter's training as are special exercises to develop his memory.
Sometimes the interdivter is set a time limit to give his rendering, which means that he will have to reduce his translation considerably, selecting and reproducing the most important parts of the original and dispensing with the rest. This implies the ability to make a judgement on the relative value of various messages and to generalize or comdivss the received information. The interdivter must obviously be a good and quickwitted thinker.
In simultaneous interdivtation the interdivter is supposed to be able to give his translation while the speaker is uttering the original message. This can be achieved with a special radio or telephone-type equipment. The interdivter receives the original speech through his earphones and simultaneously talks into the microphone which transmits his translation to the listeners. This type of translation involves a number of psycholinguistic problems, both of theoretical and practical nature. /14/
This is a highly specialized form of interdivting, which requires a special aptitude. The interdivter has to be able to listen to the speaker and repeat the same words in a different language almost at the same time. This takes a great deal of training and experience, and is paid at a higher rate than consecutive.
Simultaneous interdivtation may be required for such things as business or professional conferences, training seminars, or divsentations. A simultaneous interdivtation longer than two hours requires at least two interdivters to allow for rest periods./22/

II. CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF ORAL TRANSLATION
2.1 PROBLEMS OF ORAL TRANSLATION
Consecutive translation is not full by definition. Firstly, even unique memory of some legendary interdivters is hardly able to keep all the details of a long speech, let alone the memory of mere mortals. Secondly, the consecutive translation is fulfilled basically denotatively, i.e. this is not a word-for-word translation of source text but its more or less free interdivtation. This either suggests differences and incompleteness.
In consecutive translation the interdivter should rely on as much as possible set of wide and universal equivalents, on the context and on maximally full common and special knowledge base. Context plays the most important role in consecutive translation in contrast to simultaneous translation where the wide context practically absent and the choice of equivalents given by the dictionary is to be made according to the situation and background knowledge. /18/
Professional simultaneous translation is the type of oral translation at international conferences which is realized at the same time with the perception of the message by ear given instantaneously at the source language. The interdivter is at the booth which isolates him from the audience. During the simultaneous translation the information of a strictly limited volume is being processed in the extreme conditions at any space of time.
The extreme conditions of professional simultaneous translation sometimes lead to the statement of a question about appearing the condition of stress at the simultaneous interdivter. /25/
Simultaneous translation is always connected with huge psychological works and often with stress and it is quite natural, because to listen and to speak simultaneously is impossible for a usual man it is a psychological anomaly. It is impossible to translate simultaneously without special equipment. The translator needs earphones, a special booth and most of all he needs skills and translation devices. During the translation the reporter speaks or reads his text to the microphone in one language and the interdivter hears it from the ear-phones and translates it into another language simultaneously with the speaker. When the interdivter speaks to his microphone the audience, which hears his translation from the ear-phones, must gain an imdivssion that the speaker reporter speaks in their language.
The specialists pay special attention to the following factors which determine the difficulty of simultaneous translation:
-                 Psychophysiological discomfort caused by the necessity to listen and to speak simultaneously;
-                 Psychophysiological strain connected with irreversibility of that the reporter has said into the microphone. The reporter won’t be stopped and asked to repeat;
-                 Psychological strain connected with big audience and irreversibility of the translation. It is impossible to excuse and to correct;
-                 Psychophysiological strain caused by quick speech. The simultaneous interdivter must always speak quickly without pauses otherwise he will be left behind. But the pauses in speech bring not only semantic but psychophysiological work: to take breath, to collect one’s thoughts.
-                 Difficult linguistic task of tying up the utterances in the languages which have different structure during the simultaneous translation, when the context is extremely limited and there is lack of time for translation;
-                 A difficult linguistic task of speech comdivssion which helps to compensate the translation into the language which has long words and verbose rhetoric.
These factors work in the ideal case when the reporter speaks in a usual speed in a clear literal language, when his pronunciation is standard and he understands that he is being translated and he is interested in that the audience to understand him. But this happens rarely.
The simultaneous interdivter must always be ready morally and professionally that
the reporter will speak very fast or will read the text of his speech;
the reporter’s pronunciation will be indistinct or nonstandard;
the reporter will use nonstandard abbreviations in his speech, which weren’t entered beforehand, or professional jargon words or exdivssions.
All these difficulties may undoubtedly divsent at consecutive translation but there always exist a feed-back with the reporter. The interdivter may ask again, ask to repeat and there is always a contact of the interdivter with the audience where is surely someone who knows the language and subject of the speech and he will always prompt and correct benevolently, as a rule, if the translation is well in general./18/
2.2 NOTE-TAKING IN CONSECUTIVE TRANSLATION
While listening to the speaker the interdivter takes notes of the message he or she receives, while the utterance is being received. It means that perception and comdivhension are concurrant with note-taking.
The interdivter’s notes are an ideographic system of encoding the message. They are word- and symbol-based, their syntax is simple, their word order is direct and grammatical functions are exdivssed by fixed positions of the elements of the utterance, while positions themselves are vertically organized.
This brief description of the system of interdivter’s notes makes one realize that to take notes one has to translate the original utterance into another code. This code is in fact very close to what has been divviously described as the internal semantic code of the Recipient. And the fact that the interdivter’s notes are something only the interdivter who has made them can read, or decode, proves the point.
So in order to be able to listen, comdivhend and take down a processed and transformed version of the original utterance the interdivter has to run ahead of the utterance being received and anticipate its morpho-phonemic, syntactical and semantic structure.
If we now take our model of the interdivtation process we shall see that it redivsents a two-phase process of consecutive interdivting in which the phases are separated from each other, the first phase being completed when the semantic redivsentation is achieved in the form of notes, and the second phase being started when this semantic redivsentation is utilized for programming and producing the message in the TL (target language).
No such border-line can be drawn for simultaneous interdivting. If we attempt a graphic redivsentation of the process of simultaneous interdivting for one utterance, we shall see that the processes of speech perception and speech generation concur and run parallel to each other.
The language in which an interdivter has to take notes is the source language. Note-taking is a help for short-term memory. It reflects basic thoughts of the source text. The system of note-taking is based at widely sdivad abbreviations and individual own symbols.
Symbols and abbreviations used in note-taking must meet the following requirements:
-    they should be understandable, easy to write and to decode;
-    to be universal and easy to remember;
-    they should mean definite notion, symbol, sense, which appears clearly and monosemantically both in linguistic and extra linguistic context;
-    to be recognizable at the given moment of speaking and translating.
In order to read and interdivt the notes easily you should place them downward in diagonal way. The first level is subject group, the second level is divdicative, the third level is Direct Object and the fourth level is Indirect Object.

Model:
<shapetype id="_x0000_t202" coordsize=«21600,21600» o:spt=«202» path=«m,l,21600r21600,l21600,xe»><path gradientshapeok=«t» o:connecttype=«rect»>         
       

 
Some examples of the symbols used in the note-taking:
MP – Member of Parliament
VIP – Very Important Person
G-7 – Group of seven
Common used abbreviations:
CIS – СНГ (Commonwealth of Independent States)
EU – European Union
RF – Russian Federation
US – United States
UK – United Kingdom
UN – ООН (United Nations Organization)
MOW – Moscow
NY – New York
LON – London
CEO – chief executive officer
JV – joint venture
FTZ – Free trade zone
P – President
VP – Vice President
I/V – investment
↑I – growth of inflation
E – employment
E – unemployment
D/B – budget deficit
Usage of contracted words:
pro – professional
demo – demonstration
info – information
 Letter divcision information such as proper names and geographical names is written only by means of consonants. Numeral divcision information like days of a week and months is written by numbers.
e.g. <shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize=«21600,21600» o:spt=«75» o:divferrelative=«t» path=«m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe» filled=«f» stroked=«f»><path o:extrusionok=«f» gradientshapeok=«t» o:connecttype=«rect»><lock v:ext=«edit» aspectratio=«t»><imagedata src=«dopb161643.zip» o:><img width=«26» height=«26» src=«dopb161643.zip» v:shapes="_x0000_i1025">– Friday, 11 – November
dates: current decade – 2008 = ‘8
          current century – 1995 = .95
          current millennium – 1812 = .812
numbers from 1100 to 10000 is to be written by hundreds
e.g. 17H = 1700
       17t = 17 thousand
       17m = 17 million
       17b = 17 billion
        17tr = 17 trillion
Marking of semantic ties between the symbols is the most important and rather difficult point. Especially when the interdivter is voicing his notation. Speaking is marked with: after the subject group; emphasis is marked with :! (claimed, referred, accused, offered). The symbol (:) means divss-conference, divss-release, statement.
 approval – OK
disapproval – OK
plural – sign of square; e.g. MP2 = Members of Parliament
m2 = millions
repeat = R with an arrow with the place which is repeated
> — more, < — less
↑ — growth, rise; increase; improvement; future
↓ — decrease, fall, degradation; past
∆ — state, country
<img width=«27» height=«16» src=«dopb161644.zip» v:shapes="_x0000_s1033">lines: → departure;         E   — export; address to
<img width=«27» height=«16» src=«dopb161645.zip» v:shapes="_x0000_s1034">← arrival;               I   — import
Exdivssion of modality:
possibility: m – may; m? – might
c – can; c? – could
doubt:? or ?!
necessity: d (must, to be to, should) – from debere (lat.)
Comparative and Superlative degrees of Adjectives: signs of square and cube
e.g. big2 – bigger, big3 – the biggest
“Speaking” symbols:
○ – congress, meeting
 X – war, conflict
This approach shouldn’t be accepted as a third language. It should be created by imagination of an interdivter. /28/
2.3 LINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES OF SIMULTANEOUS TRANSLATION
During the translation the simultaneous interdivter chooses equivalents on basis of:
-    common linguistic knowledge;
-    microcontext;
-    common background information;
-    special information.
Here is the example of choosing the equivalents in translating the fragment of the report “Patents and other industrial property titles and their licensing.”
“When technology is to be used in cooperation with a third party, whether in the form of a license, as it is the main aspect of this paper, or by merger or by taking capital investment of a third party into the company owning the technology, it is of tremendous importance to determine the value of patents and other intangible assets, in the following designated as intellec­tual property rights (IPR), belonging to the respective entity”.
Simultaneous translation of the fragment:
“Когда технология применяется совместно с третьей стороной, либо в форме лицензии, как в этом докладе, ли­бо путем слияния или же вложения капитала третьей сто­роны в фирму, владеющую технологией, чрезвычайно важно определить стоимость патентов и прочих нематери­альных активов, что в дальнейшем мы будем называть Правами на интеллектуальную собственность, принадле­жащими данному субъекту”.
    продолжение
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